Brains in Hell

Thirteen Reasons for UML's Descent Into Darkness

UML always had so much promise. It was such a giant leap from OVID and the other design systems we had before it. And yet, this article really nails why it died and why, whenever I think about formalizing a project, I reach for my Yourdon over anything else: the obsessive monetization, the documentation vs. code issue, and the proliferation of so many layers that it became cognitively burdensome to actually use the damn thing.

California Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Gay Marriage

Naturally, Ed turns to the Family Research Council and wonders what they think about this sort of thing. "It's outrageous that the court has overturned... the clear will of the people." Huh. "The clear will of the people" would also erase the First Amendment, and once outlawed interracial marriage. (Does anyone actually remember that miscegnation is a pejorative?) Ed lovingly points out that Perkins demanded the Supreme Court "overturn the clear will of the people" just two years ago when Oregon passed its assisted suicide laws.

Shunning the Ten Commandments

With Nancy Pelosi in charge of the House and Harry Reid in charge of the Senate, we can't have a voice. We can't get these out and open and celebrate the Ten Commandments

And there it is, boys and girls, the essentialism of modern Christian Nationalism: if they can't use the power of the state, if we can't use the institution of deadly force, if we can't use taxpayer money, they're being repressed.

Crossing The Line

The Family Research Council is apparently planning on writing and disseminating a collection of sermons for this political year to pastors across the country. The sermons are going to be chock full of advice and admonition and all of them are aimed in a single direction: Vote Republican. Vote McCain.

Okay, I have a deal: go ahead. Do it. Become fully political institutions, and submit to full taxation under the law like any other incorporated entity. I never understood why churches were discriminated favorably.

No Child is Safe from the Cult of Emo!

While this story about a young teenager committing suicide is immensely sad, this overwrought article that ends with "And that's the danger of emo" is just a little too much.

Last few days...

Suddenly the weather turns beautiful and everything is right with the world. I don't really talk enough these days about how wonderful life really is; politics and religion and friends getting ill all suck, but I still have a good life.

Yamaraashi-chan really has integrated fully into my household. It was a long and painful experience, but in the end it's been worth it. She's cheerful and happy here, even when she grumps about homework she does it good-naturedly. Last night we played Set and she kicked mine and Kouryou-chan's butts combined, 13 to 11 (my 6, Kouryou-chan 5). There's just something about the way her brain works. It was so nice the other day to hear her and Omaha laughing about something-- probably me-- in such a free and unrestrained way. So different from the sullen, depressed child we got two years ago. She's doing so well, is such a great, ordinary kid, that Omaha actually said, "You know, I think we did it. I think we saved her."

Sadly, neither of them cared for the crab salad I tossed for dinner Wednesday night. It was a very complicated and adult flavor, so maybe that's okay. I let them have peanut butter sandwiches again.

Kouryou-chan and I rode our bikes to the grocery store and I managed to carry two half-gallon jugs of milk in my vest pockets. That's one rockin' vest.

Last night I cleaned out one of the two garden beds where we planted tomatoes last year. (lisakit shamed me into doing so; I'd been slacking it, and she told me about her own gardening efforts which kick started me off onto mine.) While I was doing so the neighbor's littlest kid, a girl of about four, came and played with the bugs I kept digging up. Kouryou-chan and the two kids her age rode their bikes through the yard. And the eldest boy talked about going into the Marines when he reached eighteen. More power to him.

This morning was Bike To Work Day, and I did exactly that. My knee seems to give me trouble only when I'm in a middle-press; light riding doesn't bother it at all, nor does hill climbing. It's only during accelerating on a flat that it bugs me. Hit the gym at lunch and had a pretty good work out, pressing 70 and doing push-ups and abwork.

My writing attention's elsewhere today. Trying to get Shandy and Linia into bed. I went back and re-read the first draft and realized there's a hilarious scene in there that has to be worked into the novel.